IowaSkinsFan
01-13-2004, 11:40 AM
In the playoffs next season, he says!
For Gibbs, it's a risk worth taking
It's as if Redskins fans have just won a fourth Super Bowl. Here is old gent Joe Gibbs, the prodigal son of Washington football, emerging from a cocoon at a time when the franchise was disintegrating to depths it hadn't mucked since the early 1960s. Here is Gibbs, all smiles and laughs and cautious promises, vigorous at 63 and eager to once again test himself, to see if he can resurrect a team and a fan base that have been slumbering since his retirement.
There is something about comebacks by these elderly gentlemen, with bulging wallets and unsatisfied egos, these grandpas who still need the quenching of a thirst for competition that at once is their devil and their god. But this return is most shocking of them all. Bill Parcells never seemed completely gone, and Dick Vermeil occasionally would drop a hint about his possible re-emergence. But Gibbs had been steadfast in his denials since walking away from the Redskins after the 1992 season with three NFL championship rings and a resume so impressive it gained him a Hall of Fame plaque. His lust for competition had been satisfied through the success of his NASCAR race team; this was a content man who didn't need the draining rigors of pro football.
Yet here he is, back in coaching again, giving Dan Snyder more credibility by saying yes than the Redskins owner ever could earn on his own. The city immediately was electrified and energized; Washington is a football town, and not even Michael Jordan's hiring had this kind of uplifting effect on the citizenry. With most of his NASCAR duties being assumed by eldest son, J.D., Gibbs needed a new challenge. What if he could restore the team he loved so much, knowing all the time there was no safety net to save him? Wouldn't that be the ultimate thrill?
It cost a gushing Snyder $28 million to go from town villain to hero, to end his uneducated meddling that had undermined Norv Turner, Marty Schottenheimer and Steve Spurrier and turned the franchise into a laughingstock. Gibbs' towering presence stops all that. After all, Gibbs is so determined and unrelenting that he once took on and sent scrambling former Redskins general manager Bobby Beathard, who hired him in 1981 and watched an obscure assistant with the Chargers become the most popular figure in Redskins history. Gibbs is the one commanding figure who can halt the back-biting ways of the Redskins' front-office culture. He survived Jack Kent Cooke; he's the only one capable of schooling a grateful Snyder.
Already, Gibbs has more authority than Spurrier ever wanted -- or realized too late he needed. I asked Gibbs if he had power to determine his final roster. "Yes," he said. "But I think every (NFL) coach has that. I think that is important." But Spurrier could have roster decisions vetoed by Snyder, and did.
Gibbs also will be lording over other personnel issues, which should return sanity to what is viewed around the league as a sad-sack operation. In his first Redskins tenure, Gibbs was not very active in personnel. That's why the team had Beathard, then Charley Casserly. But now it has Vinny Cerrato, and even though it is doubtful Gibbs will turn into some super scout, at some point he most likely will add men loyal to him in the scouting department.
"He has a very strong opinion on what he wants at every position," says Casserly, who calls Gibbs, simply, the best coach in league history. "He brings instant credi-bility to everything they do now. Who would think what he wants won't work?"
Of course, that is what Gibbs is risking by returning -- the loss of kingly aura. Here is one of the league's most skilled game planners and intellects, a brilliant, gifted, marvelously humorous man with a steely resolve and stunning adaptability. Now he is taking on a brave new battle in a league that has changed dramatically in his absence -- what with the salary cap and free agents and players dialing up cell phones. Gibbs has a steep learning curve, but Joe Jacoby, a former Hog, laughs when he hears speculation his old coach won't succeed.
"He won Super Bowls with three different quarterbacks, different running backs, he won despite two (player) strikes, he won with Plan B, so this will be no different," says Jacoby. "It's already changed with this team. The fear factor has kicked in, the players' respect for their coach has returned. This team needs discipline and focus, and he will give them both."
Gibbs has hired some of his old coaches, including Head Hog Joe Bugel. But Gibbs is smart enough to mix in new thinking, led by dynamo defensive coordinator Gregg Williams. And he'll relish what he sees on the field -- an NFL now glaringly vulnerable to passing. This offseason, Snyder will fill a needs list -- a skilled rusher (Corey Dillon?), defensive linemen (Warren Sapp, Jevon Kearse?), a linebacker, a tight end. Quarterback Patrick Ramsey will be protected; everything Gibbs does on offense starts with quarterback protection. The Redskins vastly underachieved in 2003; they will be a playoff team in 2004.
And what a division the NFC East will be, with Parcells, Gibbs, Andy Reid and Tom Coughlin. My goodness, watching Tony Stewart chase Jeff Gordon, that's fun. But to win again amid this challenge, who cares about a safety net?
For Gibbs, it's a risk worth taking
It's as if Redskins fans have just won a fourth Super Bowl. Here is old gent Joe Gibbs, the prodigal son of Washington football, emerging from a cocoon at a time when the franchise was disintegrating to depths it hadn't mucked since the early 1960s. Here is Gibbs, all smiles and laughs and cautious promises, vigorous at 63 and eager to once again test himself, to see if he can resurrect a team and a fan base that have been slumbering since his retirement.
There is something about comebacks by these elderly gentlemen, with bulging wallets and unsatisfied egos, these grandpas who still need the quenching of a thirst for competition that at once is their devil and their god. But this return is most shocking of them all. Bill Parcells never seemed completely gone, and Dick Vermeil occasionally would drop a hint about his possible re-emergence. But Gibbs had been steadfast in his denials since walking away from the Redskins after the 1992 season with three NFL championship rings and a resume so impressive it gained him a Hall of Fame plaque. His lust for competition had been satisfied through the success of his NASCAR race team; this was a content man who didn't need the draining rigors of pro football.
Yet here he is, back in coaching again, giving Dan Snyder more credibility by saying yes than the Redskins owner ever could earn on his own. The city immediately was electrified and energized; Washington is a football town, and not even Michael Jordan's hiring had this kind of uplifting effect on the citizenry. With most of his NASCAR duties being assumed by eldest son, J.D., Gibbs needed a new challenge. What if he could restore the team he loved so much, knowing all the time there was no safety net to save him? Wouldn't that be the ultimate thrill?
It cost a gushing Snyder $28 million to go from town villain to hero, to end his uneducated meddling that had undermined Norv Turner, Marty Schottenheimer and Steve Spurrier and turned the franchise into a laughingstock. Gibbs' towering presence stops all that. After all, Gibbs is so determined and unrelenting that he once took on and sent scrambling former Redskins general manager Bobby Beathard, who hired him in 1981 and watched an obscure assistant with the Chargers become the most popular figure in Redskins history. Gibbs is the one commanding figure who can halt the back-biting ways of the Redskins' front-office culture. He survived Jack Kent Cooke; he's the only one capable of schooling a grateful Snyder.
Already, Gibbs has more authority than Spurrier ever wanted -- or realized too late he needed. I asked Gibbs if he had power to determine his final roster. "Yes," he said. "But I think every (NFL) coach has that. I think that is important." But Spurrier could have roster decisions vetoed by Snyder, and did.
Gibbs also will be lording over other personnel issues, which should return sanity to what is viewed around the league as a sad-sack operation. In his first Redskins tenure, Gibbs was not very active in personnel. That's why the team had Beathard, then Charley Casserly. But now it has Vinny Cerrato, and even though it is doubtful Gibbs will turn into some super scout, at some point he most likely will add men loyal to him in the scouting department.
"He has a very strong opinion on what he wants at every position," says Casserly, who calls Gibbs, simply, the best coach in league history. "He brings instant credi-bility to everything they do now. Who would think what he wants won't work?"
Of course, that is what Gibbs is risking by returning -- the loss of kingly aura. Here is one of the league's most skilled game planners and intellects, a brilliant, gifted, marvelously humorous man with a steely resolve and stunning adaptability. Now he is taking on a brave new battle in a league that has changed dramatically in his absence -- what with the salary cap and free agents and players dialing up cell phones. Gibbs has a steep learning curve, but Joe Jacoby, a former Hog, laughs when he hears speculation his old coach won't succeed.
"He won Super Bowls with three different quarterbacks, different running backs, he won despite two (player) strikes, he won with Plan B, so this will be no different," says Jacoby. "It's already changed with this team. The fear factor has kicked in, the players' respect for their coach has returned. This team needs discipline and focus, and he will give them both."
Gibbs has hired some of his old coaches, including Head Hog Joe Bugel. But Gibbs is smart enough to mix in new thinking, led by dynamo defensive coordinator Gregg Williams. And he'll relish what he sees on the field -- an NFL now glaringly vulnerable to passing. This offseason, Snyder will fill a needs list -- a skilled rusher (Corey Dillon?), defensive linemen (Warren Sapp, Jevon Kearse?), a linebacker, a tight end. Quarterback Patrick Ramsey will be protected; everything Gibbs does on offense starts with quarterback protection. The Redskins vastly underachieved in 2003; they will be a playoff team in 2004.
And what a division the NFC East will be, with Parcells, Gibbs, Andy Reid and Tom Coughlin. My goodness, watching Tony Stewart chase Jeff Gordon, that's fun. But to win again amid this challenge, who cares about a safety net?